Justice is done on the single most momentous episode of The Archers since 1955, writes BRIAN VINER

With a great clinking of cocoa mugs, or however Radio 4 listeners like to celebrate, justice was heard to be done last night, as Helen Titchener walked free from Borchester Crown Court, found not guilty of attempting to murder her abusive husband, Rob.

But will Helen's acquittal further inflame the political debate already ignited by one of the most engrossing but also most controversial storylines in the long history of The Archers? It might.

First things first, though. After the trial had unfolded all last week, last night's episode listened in on the jury as they asked whether Helen was acting in self-defence when she stabbed Rob.

Free woman: Helen Titchener, seen right in a black blazer, was cleared of attempted murder and wounding with intent in tonight's special one-hour episode of The Archers. The recent storyline has been brought to life with sketches by a real-life court artist

Shortly before 8pm, the foreman, splendidly played by Nigel Havers, pronounced Helen 'not guilty'. That was it. 'It's over, take me home,' declared a sobbing Helen, just in time for the rest of us to calm down in front of the Antiques Roadshow on BBC1.

Actually, my wife didn't regain her equilibrium until half-way through Poldark at 9.30. It had been captivating radio, as the jurors, tugged one way and then the other in a tumult of gender politics, class warfare and personal grievances (which in my one experience of jury service is about right), eventually decided that Helen had been driven to stab her husband by his bullying, coercive behaviour.

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Moments later, the familiar Barwick Green theme tune signalled the end to perhaps the single most momentous episode of The Archers since September 1955. That was when 20million listeners heard poor Grace Archer die in a fire, and BBC switchboards were jammed for the next 48 hours.

The venerable serial doesn't have the grip on the collective consciousness that it did then, but even so, there have been more than 18,000 episodes of The Archers and last night's was the first to be extended to an hour. The Titchener storyline has captivated the nation, or at least that part of the nation that treats Ambridge – and what used to be known as 'an everyday tale of country folk', now rather glibly modernised to 'contemporary drama in a rural setting' – as a parallel universe.

Stars: Louiza Patikas and Timothy Watson, who play Helen and Rob Titchener in The Archers

Within the BBC, last night's denouement was deemed so significant that some mighty thespian talent was wheeled out to make up the jury; not just Havers, but also Dame Eileen Atkins, whose character, Jackie, turned out to be Helen's most passionate advocate.

But the story doesn't end there, and not only because creepy Rob popped up at the end to remind us that he's still very much at large. No, doubtless because fans of The Archers, like the Titcheners themselves, are so overwhelmingly middle-class, the storyline has seeped into real life. Opinion-formers, even legislators, have been jumping as if jolted with cattle-prods. Much of the fall-out has been positive. Polly Neate, chief executive of charity Women's Aid, which advised the BBC as the storyline developed, has credited the soap with a dramatic increase in calls to the National Domestic Abuse helpline.

Harrowing: Helen Titchener takes the stand as she claims she was repeatedly raped by her husband. The episode prompted an outpouring of emotion from devoted listeners

Some of it has been silly, with Timothy Watson, who plays Rob, getting roundly abused on social media, and actual lawyers offering Helen (Louiza Patikas) 'free' advice.

And some of it has been divisive. In April, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders, vowed to bring 'real-life Robs' to justice. Last year's new legislation criminalising coercive behaviour, what some are now calling 'Titchener's Law', has been criticised even by some women's charities as inadequate and open to misinterpretation.

The argument will go on. And last night's verdict will make it louder. But Helen is free, that's the main thing.